Public Statements

Congresswoman Duckworth to Take Pay Cut if Congress Fails to Stop the Sequester

Statement

Today, Congresswoman Tammy Duckworth announced that if Congress fails to come to a compromise to avoid sequestration, she will take a pay cut of 8.4%, or the same reduction that most discretionary programs will face on March 1, until a balanced solution is reached. The returned wages will be given back to the Treasury and tax payers. Salaries for Members of Congress are currently exempt from the pending budget cuts. Duckworth released the following statement.

Congress has failed to make the common sense compromises necessary to avoid the across the board cuts that both parties agree are unacceptable. Public schools in my district will be forced to cut hundreds of thousands of dollars from their budgets and Illinois is expected to lose more than 50,000 jobs as a result of sequestration. Meanwhile, Congress remains paralyzed by partisanship and unable to address the $1 billion in Medicare fraud each week, excessive subsidies for oil and gas companies and sizeable tax breaks for large corporations.

I promised my neighbors that I was going to Washington to work for them and not for myself. If Congress is going to try to balance the budget on the backs of working Americans it is only fair that I bear that burden with them. I look forward to working with my colleagues to create a budget that empowers working Americans, but if we are unable to do so, I will make the same sacrifices as the people I serve.